Meet Maryline Njeri, or Mama Mandazi as she is commonly known by both her customers and neighbours. She is from Kakamega County in Amalemba shopping Centre, a five minute drive from Kakamega Town.
Hers is a story of business. A story of success. A story of moving from nothing to something in the world of business. Maryline is a smiling tall looking lady who has a sense of humour, the trick hat keeps her customers coming back for more of her products.
She sells mandazi. This is a business she has been doing for the last 15 years. “They call me Mama Mandazi because mandazi is me and I am mandazi.” She said with a wide grim spread all over her face.
From a distance, her small shop looks like any other tin-roofed small shops of Amalemba but a closer look reveals quite the opposite. Inside the small shop, a beehive of activities goes on as her employees move from here to there attending to the numerous customers at the counter.
Started with 200 Shillings
Maryline started her business in 2001. She only had a capital of 200 shillings. She said that she bought a 2Kg flour at 87 shillings, cooking fat at 57 shillings and sugar at sugar at 56 shillings. She could make mandazi from her home and sell them to pupils at Amalemba Primary School in Kakamega. She would make a profit of between 120 and 150 shillings a day. She moved from 2Kg packet of flour to up to 6kg a day and she would make up to 900 to 1000 shillings a day.
Read: Nancie Amunga: On Making it big in the Courier Industry
The Saving Culture
The lady embraced a saving culture. According to her, to maintain a saving culture requires discipline. She discipline herself to be saving at least 500 and at most 1000 shillings every day. After a month, her savings had reached 26500 shillings. That was when she decided to take her business a notch higher by renting a room.
“There is nothing as good as saving. Life is like a riddle and we never know what might happen the following day. Saving always helps you to prepare for the following day,” she said.
Wholesale
Maryline decided to start making mandazi in large scale and then selling them on wholesale to retailers. She says that she sells between 10,000 to 15000 mandazi daily which means that she makes between 50,000 to 75,000 a day and when she deducts all the expenses, she remains with a profit of between 10,000 to 15,000 shillings a day.
“Many people see this business as the business of the lowly. They think that those who engage in this kind of business is someone who failed in life. I, therefore, have very little competition, in fact none for am the only one who distributes mandazi in all the shops around,” she said.
Advice to others
This was her patting shot “You cannot start by becoming great but you become great by starting”
Article by Juma Fred.